The Morning After
by Nabla
Summary: The morning after a boozy night, Naruto finds himself in a strange situation. How did it happen? Abstract one-shot from my main story I am currently writing. Rated M for references to adult themes. NarutoXSakura for 90 percent, but will change at the end.


The Morning After

AN: This story is an idea that bugged me for quite some time now. Have fun reading and leave a review if you feel like it, I would be honored. Ah and it's also my first time I published something, so please be gentle.

This story deals basically with Naruto and Sakura and why their relationship didn't move further then a friendship, be warned. This whole story is a flashback scene out of my main story I am curently writing, which will be, at this point of time, a NaruHina story.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and I am sadly not related to him in anyway.

Summary:

The morning after a boozy night, Naruto finds himself in a strange situation. How did it happen? Abstract one-shot from my main story I am currently writing. Rated M for references to adult themes. NarutoXSakura basically.

* * *

Saturday morning in Konahagakure, the village hidden under the leaf. A day like many others in fire country hot, dry and with bright beams of light from an overly present sun. Something that was held precious to many people inside the village, precious for example to a certain well known lazy bum head, who loves to watch the clouds and the refractions of the sun on the edge of said palls.

On the other hand, sunbeams can also be the most torturous tool, known to mankind. Something a 19 year old Usumaki Naruto expired that moment.

Blinking, Naruto reached for his pillow to haul it over his light-sensitive eyes. A pointless act he detected, while his brain slowly came to consciousness, once touched by suns evil force. And with the returning consciousness a painful knocking in the back of his head made itself present and turned out to be the cruel aftermath of a blurry night and first sign of a hangover.

Something like that hadn't happened for over 3 years and was hard to achieve in the first place, at least hard for Naruto and his hyperactive metabolism, the semi conscious brain remembered. The last time was on the day after his 16th birthday. The blond Ninja found himself vested with just his boxers lying over the memorial stone. A fact Kakashi wasn't really pleased with, as he found Naruto.

Trying to focus on his thoughts and ignoring the light that miraculously found its way through the pillow, Naruto desperately arranged the few memories he had from the night before. There was a sad looking Tsunade, a 3 foot tall pyramid of jiggers, his friends, pink, flashes of his kitchen, living room and bed room and a mission report, but nothing seemed to make any sense.

Sighing he snuggled deeper into the warmth of his bed. At least this time nothing embarrassing happened. He recognized his bed under him, the blanket over his body and his pillow, with the sakura floral, over his head. Only the scent was somehow odd, familiar but odd. Properlysomething he poured over himself last night and also the reason why he was nude instead of wearing his usual pajama.

With a despaired act of resistance he grasped his pillow and threw it halfhearted at the source of the threatening light. After the soft thumb of the pillow hitting the ground Naruto raised his fist at the shiny yellow ball of wickedness and declared his wrath.

"You may have won the battle, but you won't win the war, better believe it!" The last part was adjusted at his mattress in a last try to get back to the blissful land of dreams.

--

The sudden pain of a fist hitting his head destroyed all the thoughts of a whirlpool filled with Miso-ramen and a mostly naked Sakura begging for him to join her. Instead his mind ran a thousand miles per hour judging the possibility that the familiar pain and familiar fist really belongs to the person he thought of. The way to intimate voice of a woman reached his ears half a second later, forcing his brain to shut down…

"Oi, you way to loud Na..-ru…..to……" He noticed how the voice silenced with every syllable of his name, like she just then becomes aware of what she just did. Naruto also noticed how that what he considered to be a comfortable and warm blanket stiffened.

Holding his breath, the blond slowly turned his head to the right taking a glimpse of the woman next to him.

There she was Haruno Sakura the proud apprentice of Tsunade, trained Ninja , outstanding Medic, and also in the position to use her medical training in other fields, as a new memory flash told him. Naruto could feel his cheeks grow warm and although the danger he faced, a possible furious Kunoichi, he led his imagination drift, just for a few seconds.

Focusing back on the horrified expression on the face in front of him the Jinchuriki balanced his options. A few possibilities ran through his mind but none of them was pleasant for his health. The slight switch of the pink haired head in his direction was the trigger he needed. For fear of a head butt he skipped, despite his bareness, as fast as human possible out of the bed.

Grapping an empty hokage-size ramen bowl from the floor to cover his shame, Naruto headed to the wall, farthest away from the woman and his bed, to crouch down. Not daring to look in her direction he muttered some words for himself, searching for the right ones to defuse the situation.

--

Meanwhile, Sakura shifted her body in an upward position with her back to the wall, drying to sort out her own senses, holding the blanket tightly to her chest. To be honest she expected to be angry at Naruto, this was just a situation the blond prankster would have arranged. On the other side seeing his cowered position over there at the wall, she just knows that this wasn't planed, not in the slightest.

Which brought her mind back to her first thoughts this morning: How the hell did she end in a foreign bed? Not just a foreign one, of all beds it had to be Narutos. She hasn't got any further feelings for him than friendly or brotherly at least she always thought so…

Well, considering that she ended up here….. ah, who was she kidding, her inner self definitely not. In the moment his deep blue eyes met with her own green ones, she was totally lost. She even inched towards him with the intent to kiss him, an action that seemed to upset him.

--

Suddenly Naruto levels his gaze back to his pink haired goddess sitting on the bed, his right arm scratching the back of his head, the left still on the ramen bowl and the trademark grin paved on his face. To sum it up his mask was back in place.

"Oi, Sakura-chan, no need for false presumptions, we just woke up lying beside each other, and I have no proof or memory that anything happened."

His eyes drifted to sundry clothes allotted all over his place, the kitchen, the sofa and the floor. Noticing his boxers, half of them hanging on the window sill and half outside, a flashback shot painfully through his head and suddenly there were proofs and memories. _Crap!_

Naruto closed his eyes and slammed the back of his head rather forcefully against the wall and sighed. "We'll, cancel that."

"Eh, Naruto, I … we…" Sakura shyly started, just to be interrupted by the male Ninja again, who seemed to be oblivious to her flimsy tries to talk to him.

"Sakura, what happened to us? Why did we drink ourselves into oblivion? There had to be a reason, but I just can't get a hold on it."

A recently forgotten pain returned to the young woman, additionally the feeling of betrayal crept into her heard and made her even more unease.

"Naruto," he looked up and stared at her "don't you know, we just got back from our last mission…" That would explain his memory of handing papers to Tsunade "…someone died, someone precious to us, both … or to be honest, we had to kill him."

Hugging her knees she continued, her voice hardly more than a whisper, but Naruto was never the less able to understand her clearly. "We killed Sasuke-kun, Naruto, we, we had to."

The room was completely silent, you would have even heard a pin drop, and indeed a second later the air was filled of the sound of a ramen bowl breaking into countless tiny pieces.

Ninja or not, the emotions which flowed through his body were just too much. One doesn't stop being a human after graduation and become a impassible tool. You can try to, but you will never succeed completely, and right now Naruto was just a young man. A naked young man who gave everyone who would care, a great view to his body.

Somehow that crept back into his mind, but he didn't care. Now the last night made a lot of sense. They all went out drinking, the now Rocky 8, their friends, they had understood the desire to booze. His friends left at some point that evening and the only one left was Sakura and they started to comfort each other.

Last night was no kind of ultimate demonstration of their deepest feelings for each other no highlight of a wonderful date, like he hoped in the first place, it rather was a pity fuck and it broke his heart once more.

Naruto himself was physically and mentally strong, but he had to be for both of them. Someone had to speak it out, to clear the borders once more, so that it would be all like it used to be, as close as possible.

So he started to speak, but speaking without thinking for a moment never was a good idea, especially not in Narutos case. It often made those around him angry, but it clears the situation and the final result was always the best possible, why shouldn't it be this time as well. Yeah, why?

Picking up her black pants as well as her red battle-kimono and handing it over to her he started his little speech, while searching for a new pair of boxers, trying to avoid to look into her eyes in that moment. He better should have looked.

"Sakura-Chan, we should forget what happened here between us, it was meaningless we were just pitying ourselves and what happened was just a valve." He turned, now with his new orange flowered boxers on place and stroke his nice-guy-pose and added with a thumbs up. "By the way I prefer women where I have more than a hand full to grasp you know, hehe."

His eyes were closed in the typical upside down U form, forming his trademark grin. Se he couldn't see the fist coming to his face, but he expected it. With his head still inside the wall, the blond haired Ninja let his mind slip back into the welcome unconsciousness.

--

For the second time in one day Naruto's mind painfully resumed work, blinkingly he looked at his surroundings. Like expected there was no sign of Sakura just his usual messy apartment. A look to his alarm-clock told him, that it was close to sunset.

The blond made the decision, that thinking over the last mission as well as the last night including this morning would be far better than just start drinking again. He even didn't feel the need for food, which was odd since he had his last meal over 12 hour ago. So he made his way to his private thinking spot.

--

The day got even stranger with every passing minute. First this awakening situation in the morning and now even his private sanctuary was occupied. There on the 4th Hokages stone head, the most peacefully place in whole Konoha with a great view known to just a handful people, sat a raven haired young woman.

Naruto sighed, it was a great effort to reach his favorite place unnoticed, so that he wouldn't have to talk to anyone. But giving up his legitimate seat or even avoiding one of his closest friends was not part of Naruto's nindo and Hinata definitely deserved better.

So he slowly walked over to her and set down a few feet away from her, lost again back in his own thoughts. Hinata didn't even seem to notice him, at least he thought so, until he recognized her soft voice directed at him.

"Naruto, may I ask you a very … personal question?"

"Sure."

He could hear her taking a deep breath. "Would you marry me?"

"WHAT?" He shoot his head to her with wide eyes. That was unexpected and totally out of character for that timid woman next to him. Naruto was totally lost for words, gasping like a fish.

"Let me explain." He heard her say "I am forced to marry someone soon, it's my 20th birthday in a couple of months and if I don't have someone willing to marry me until that date, I am forced to take that _man_ the elders chose for me." She spoke the word "man" with a special venomous sound, like it would burn her tongue.

"I am not willing to do that, I would love to marry a certain fellow Ninja I know, but he doesn't seem to be interested in me,…" she glanced at his face, hugging her knees "so would you do this marriage of convenience for me, as a friend?"

A long moment of silence fell between the two young people. A moment when Naruto reflected his past and his silent vow to make all people precious to him happy, at any cost. Finally he accepted the only logical answer to her request.

* * *

You want to hear Narutos answer? Wait for "Things Change, Things Stay Constant"

The title may change ;). Date of release: End of this year.

End

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Special thanks to Sebastian K. for betaing this story, without his aid, this story would be unreadable

I am writing on purpose, first to share my ideas with those who are interested in them and second to increase my knowledge about the english language. So if you find annoying mistakes, write me an E-mail and point them out, this will help me improve for future storys.


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